Real
by GreenGreyBlack
Summary: He has a promise to keep.


**Reviews appreciated.**

* * *

_**Real**_

Nothing goes as planned, especially when you are signing divorce papers.

Oh, it feels so real, the pain and the heart break.

But she will hold on, she will pull through; after all it was nothing that she didn't expect.

You can't pull out a marriage on love alone and Tony …..was just Tony.

* * *

They sit on opposite sides of the table with his shark of an attorney,

Ironically, it is the same Lawyer for both.

It is done fast and swift.

She is still CEO of Stark industries, and he doesn't ever meddle in her work.

In fact he is more lenient than ever, courtesy of Stark's Guilty conscience.

Yet, all their interaction is done through either Mail system or employees carrying the paper work.

They haven't talked since then, her request.

* * *

It felt so real, their marriage.

He thinks back now, after all is over.

He knows he royally screwed up and damn not just himself.

She was his natural check in, his anchor, his everything and he screwed her up, over and over.

* * *

Their friends' reactions differed.

Black widow kicked him in the groin; Barton punched him in the nose.

Steve gave him the dirty look.

Bruce avoided him.

And Thor lectured him.

Heck, Even Loki sent a card: 'congratulations for the merry divorce, you are the most idiotic fool in the nine realms'

* * *

They say that you can always break off a relationship when you want to, it is easy, it is simple, just like that.

Lies.

It is an unwanted journey in the realm of forgetting, where the scars and scabs are so permanent,

Where the consequences are heavy, where there is always a reminder, always collateral damage,

Where you wear yourself out

She wears herself out in work,

He wears himself out in Whiskey.

* * *

"This isn't how you should be"

"And how should I be, Capsicle?"

Steve knows he is probably tipsy, not totally wasted.

"Trying to figure something out, working for an instant, doing any other fruitful thing instead of what drowning yourself in booze"

"You think?"

"There is a whole lot more to your life now, other than you, for once think decently and try to mend what you have broken, not for your sake, for their sake, you don't want your coming son or daughter to find you a wreck and to hate your guts"

Tony seemed to back out for a moment.

"Night, Stark"

* * *

"You still don't talk?"

"And why should we, Natasha?"

"Well, figured out with the work and stuff, you will eventually have to face off"

"I am the one avoiding him, it is better off this way"

"You are afraid you might yield to his unrelentness, you are so adamant on not forgiving him"

"It is hard, Natasha. So hard, when your heart is in a million pieces, when the trust is lost and all the promises broken, you think I wanted it to end this way after years and years of the cat and mouth chase, after all i have been called for merely standing by him? You think I want it like this, him drunk" -Natasha raised her eyebrows- "Don't give that look, I know Tony well, and me a shell of my former self, you see he cold heartedly slayed my happiness for the baby, he was so goddamn drunk to stand-up for me against the bloody slut I found him with, and after that he just expects me to magically forget and … forgive" Pepper was on the brink, she was breaking.

"You look tired, do you want to rest for a while, I can take care of this, if you want to"

"I am fine, Natasha"

* * *

He had worked on making sure he'd attend the childbirth, Sober and clean.

He swears his little girl is the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen in his life.

And he is so determined not to break the promise he whispers to her "I'll take care of you and mommy"

* * *

Pepper is the expected 101 devoted mother, and every inch the typical exhausted CEO.

She is so busy as to consider a well….. Social life, so she says.

Stark hasn't been remotely associated with any woman 'none of them is as radient or captivating as you know who', neither with booze.

He had a promise to keep.

And a trust to earn.


End file.
